Montana Dulce Narrative

Time of arrival at the Desert Vista Trailhead is 7:29 AM, the class began to hike the trail at approximately 7:45 AM. The weather was cloudy with little sunlight, no precipitation, wind was blowing at around 3 mph, temperature at the lowest was 54 F and highest at 61 F. The trail consist of desert habitats, with rocky and rugged mountain terrain, vegetation is patchy and spread out. We traveled as a class, led by our instructor, Kim Quaranta, on the Desert Vista Trailhead for approximately 0.5 miles, making the entire trip approximately 1.0 mile. The purpose of the trip was to observe the wildlife at the Phoenix Sonoran Preserve, including plants, mammals, and insects. We finished the hike at 9:18 AM and the class was dismissed at around

Mexico is being described like one would expect. It is hot and sandy; ‘A dusty road winding into and

Generally when one thinks of the American west their mind jumps to an image of untouched, unspoiled land, such as the land that is represented by America’s national parks. These tourist destinations in the West showcase the history of our nation’s land in a way that many people assume is and has always been the reality, but although the natural beauty of these lands is represented perhaps the beauty of the cultures that used to inhabit them is not.

We spent the first day of our trip driving across the high desert of Wyoming towards Utah. While it made for an unusual Easter Sunday, a traditional pot roast and a potato casserole reminded of the family holidays and fueled us for another day of traveling. Day two involved even more driving, with a memorable stop near the border of Utah at the Bonnevelle Salt Flats. The weather was theatrically arid for our visit, despite rain in the region last week. We spent the beautiful sunrise taking pictures and reveling in the alien scenery. Driving the 4Runner across the salt felt like driving on mars, and dry salt was perfect for driving and taking epic drone shots..

In the summer of 1961 our family leaves the familiar suburbs of Portland, Oregon for the unknown wilds of Eastern Oregon. Sandwiched between the east side of the Elkhorn Mountains and a seemingly endless sagebrush desert, this valley, our new home, is a stunning green oasis in the desert and a

I was issued to travel to the monstrous Guadalupe Mountains in Salt Flat, Texas. To give you a sense of where it is, it’s in West Texas near El Paso, and extends into New Mexico. The address is 400 Pine Canyon Salt Flat, TX 79847. Source: Geology of National Parks by Harris, Ester Tuttle, and Sherwood D. Tuttle. Because of the intense thunderstorms/high winds during the summer and occasional snow during the winter, I chose October. There’s calmer weather, cooler temperatures (between 50’s and 70’s), and vibrant fall colors. Source: Geology of National Parks by Harris, Ester Tuttle, and Sherwood D. Tuttle. After reading up on some of the history, the Guadalupe Mountains got it’s name from the ranchers that homesteaded in the Guadalupe

Smuggling is also having a devastating environmental impact on the Sonoran Desert, where the O’odham have made their home for centuries. Thousands of vehicles – many stolen from Phoenix and Tucson – have been loaded with drugs and migrants and then driven across countless miles of the fragile desert that makes up most of the O’odham Reservation…more than 1,400 wrecked or abandoned vehicles were towed off the reservation in

My Kia Soul was loaded with boxes from living in the dorm all year, which made the airflow of my car disappear. The lack of airflow in my car made my skin feel hot, no matter how high I turned on the A/C. On top of the heat, the only way to travel to Bullhead is on one mundane, never-ending road. Lucky for me, there never seemed to be any cars on the road. In a way to distract myself from the impending doom of a summer in Bullhead, I focused on the road ahead. The colors were the first part that caught my eye; there were varying shades of brown because of the wide-open spaces of desert sand. The mountains were tall enough to cast a shadow over the desert, which gave me some relief from the blazing sun. Every once in a while, I would pick up shades of green for all the cacti and bushes that I passed. The desert was an open landscape and was flat enough that I could identify the road miles ahead. The openness of the desert was incredibly bare and dry; I felt lonely the longer I stared. After four hours of watching endless deserts, I finally noticed the

The landscape is stark, but the beauty startling. The expanses seem to welcome, even beg you to explore. It’s a call you are unlikely to be able to resist (assuming it’s not scorchingly hot and you are not hungover from a big night in moments-away Las Vegas), nor is it one you should. In front of you is one of America’s grand spectacles, Red Rock Canyon.

Along Kirkham’s travels throughout Mexico, we see different descriptions of landscapes and citizens of Mexico during his time in service. Kirkham’s on multiple occasions mentions as to how beautiful and majestic the lands that he encountered in Mexico really are.

From January 20 to 23, I went to Santa Fe and San Ildefonso in New Mexico with Dr. Laughlin and my classmates. I was totally surprised by the architecture of the housing and the rich collection of Native American cultures. I expected to see traditional suburbs but instead I found almost everyone has built houses resembling traditional adobe homes which I had never seen. Houses, businesses, government buildings including museums are almost built in this style. The colors seem to blend in with the desert. One of the most exciting events I attended in New Mexico was the museum presentation of the Zuni tribe. Although we actually did not meet the Zuni tribe, we learned a lot about them because Dawn Kaufmann who is a guide at the Museum of

The summer of 2016, my family decided to shake up our annual summer vacation by heading out west, and chose to go to Sedona, Arizona. Let me tell you, this place radiates beauty. If you've never heard of Sedona, I’ll give you some background real quick. The city IS a desert city. Everywhere you look there's just dirt or sand on the ground and lots of cacti. But the trait that distinguishes the city IS that it sits within a valley in the red rock. All around you stand mountains made of this fiery earth. During our stay there we hiked along many trails through the red rock to almost every tourist spot, some of which gave you a panoramic view of the mountains. The views appeared surreal and took my breath away. Yes, I could go on and on about the beauty of this city, but that's not quite what this story IS about. On this trip, my family and I got up close and personal with some areas of Sedona that one wouldn't call “tourist hotspots.” The town of Jerome is an old mining town built at the base of a mountain, that now has lots of shops and restaurants, and we decided to make this our next destination. So my dad plugged the town into his iPhone GPS (first mistake) and we headed out to reach our destination. Blue sky and deserted land rolled by as I stared out the window. Time seemed to slowly trail by and we did not see signs of the town anywhere. Then suddenly, the smooth asphalt turned to gravel, and immediately something seemed off. “Are you sure we’re going the right way??”

landscape I saw before me, but now I felt like a stranger just passing through an exotic

I found myself five miles outside of Zion National Park in Utah early last summer. Pure energy coursed through my veins at 5:30am to hit the trail as I shook my dad awake. I fantasized of sitting on the top of the landing and looking down at the valley distant and peaceful below. The knife’s edge ridge stands nearly 1,500 feet above the valley, only accessible via miles of trail and dozens of switchbacks. Sandstone rock crawls up both sides and suddenly creates a narrow top, to which only the bravest travellers to this Mormon “place of peace” may tread.

If you ever get a chance to visit Chaco Canyon National Monument in New Mexico, you should take the time to just stand in the desert and listen. The silence in this place is physical; you can feel it surround you. This is a silence with depth and layers that are unbroken even by the wind, which moves through emptiness and speaks only in occasional sighs through the canyons. The air itself is very clear—the lack of humidity gives the cliffs and buttes sharp lines, and the colors of the earth, though muted, stand in stark relief to the blueness of the sky. Night comes gradually to this place. The height and dryness of the air allows the stars to appear before the sun has set—creating an odd